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Introduction to the NABPR

Annual Meeting

Campbell University School of Law

Raleigh, NC

May 18 – 20, 2015

The National Association
of Baptist Professors of Religion is a community of teaching scholars.
Most members teach at Baptist-affiliated schools, colleges, and seminaries,
but members also hail from a wide range of institutions in the United
States, Canada, and abroad, including church-related and state-supported
schools.

The history of the
Association is woven into the changing religious culture of the United
States. From the late 1920s until 1981 there were several organizations
of Baptists who were teaching scholars in different regions of the country.
From their beginnings those regional organizations reflected efforts of
men and women engaged in similar tasks in similar settings to find ways
to sharpen teaching skills and encourage the continuation of meaningful
scholarship.

The immediate predecessor
of the NABPR was a group of Baptist teaching scholars in the Southeast
who, in 1972 founded a journal, Perspectives
in Religious Studies, laying a foundation of publications that
continues to identify the work of the Association

In 1981 the NABPR
was given life at a breakfast meeting at the Pacificia Hotel in San Francisco,
California. Sixty persons adopted a constitution and elected the first
slate of officers. They also adopted requirements for membership and the
paying of annual dues, which were essential to support the projected work
of the Association. From that year on, the national body and the regional bodies
of the NABPR have met in conjunction with the national and regional conventions
of the American Academy of Religion
and the Society of Biblical Literature. During the years in which the AAR and SBL ceased to combine their meetings, the NABPR opted for independent meetings, the first of which was held at Belmont University in May, 2008. These independent meetings continue and the NABPR also meets in conjunction with the AAR and SBL.

The NABPR continues
to be a strong organization. The guild is truly national, with active
regions in the Southeast, Southwest, and Midwest, and with growing memberships
in the West and the Northeast. In 1999 a Region at Large was formed within
the Association, making it possible for members to continue cultivating
scholarship and teaching beyond the traditional contexts of the AAR and
SBL meetings.